Bangert: Days numbered for iconic Newman Road underpass, targeted by Purdue and West Side

The Newman Road rail underpass has been targeted by West Lafayette and Purdue University. The rail underpass is too ...more

The Newman Road rail underpass has been targeted by West Lafayette and Purdue University. The rail underpass is too narrow and too low to accommodate trucks trying to get to Purdue's aerospace district.

After one big-name prospect slipped away, Purdue and West Lafayette look to widen a one-lane underpass blocking development near Purdue Airport

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Blue Origin, a privately funded spaceflight manufacturer set up by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, in June 2017 picked Huntsville, Alabama, for a 400,000-square-foot facility expected to employ 350 people and capable of building 30 rocket engines a year.

The news was grand enough that the folks of Huntsville left it to Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey to deliver it.

Not announced that day was how close West Lafayette and Purdue University came to landing the project that had jobs that had average annual salaries of $75,000. City and university officials now say Purdue’s aerospace district – a part of the west campus Discovery Park District the university has pegged as a live-work-play community expected to generate $1.2 billion in development over the next 30 years – was in the final four for the Kent, Washington-based company’s plant.

“They loved everything about the community,” said Erik Carlson, West Lafayette development director. “They loved the fact that they were going to be part of what Purdue was doing with the Discovery Park District. They loved that they were going to be so close to the runway at Purdue Airport. They loved being right next to Zucrow Labs.”

What Blue Origin didn’t love, Carlson said: How difficult it was going to get trucks and equipment to acreage near the runway and Zucrow’s jet propulsion laboratories.

The Newman Road rail underpass has been targeted by West Lafayette and Purdue University. The rail ...more

The Newman Road rail underpass has been targeted by West Lafayette and Purdue University. The rail underpass is too narrow and too low to accommodate trucks trying to get to Purdue's aerospace district.

Dave Bangert/Journal & Courier

That included an at-grade rail crossing near the Airport Road entrance to the 176-acre aerospace district from the east and the tiny, arched gateway of a stone railroad underpass at Newman Road to the west.

“The site selector said, ‘Don’t let another site selector come here and see this property without you having a plan to fix this,’” Carlson said.

In recent days, Purdue and West Lafayette struck an agreement to work together to find a way to replace the Newman Road underpass, an iconic, stone throwback relegated to 10 mph, single-lane warnings within sight of Indiana 26 West. The city's and university's six-member Joint Board, which oversees the shared $120 million State Street Project, will oversee the Newman Road underpass reconstruction, as well.

“That underpass is kind of the key that unlocks that whole development,” said Rich Michal, vice president of facilities for the Purdue Research Foundation, which owns the property. “We recognized this early on that we needed to address this to unleash all this potential investment.”

Based on a Discovery Park District master plan released earlier this year, Michal said Purdue was looking at 1.6 million square feet of potential office, research and manufacturing space, up to 3,500 high-tech jobs and about $27.5 million in real estate taxes over the next 30 years.

Purdue’s aerospace portion of the Discovery Park District, meant to capitalize on access to Purdue Airport, already has the Purdue Technology Center – a complex at Indiana 26 and Newman Road branded with the university’s affiliation with Roll Royce – and a commitment from Pullman, Washington-based Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories to build a 100,000-square-foot facility for electric power research on the northwest corner of U.S. 231 and Indiana 26.

“So, we’re anxious to get it underway,” Michal said. “Until we address it, it’s going to be an uphill battle to get folks to invest in there.”

Michal estimated a new rail bridge over Newman Road could cost between $10 million and $16 million. He said that cost was less than building a rail overpass on Airport Road. The city and Purdue Research Foundation is working with the Indiana Economic Development Corp. to find funding sources.

On Monday, Maureen Barnes, who lives west of West Lafayette, was rounding a morning ride that included Newman Road in her loop. She seemed surprised by plans to widen an underpass she said she considered a distinct, pastoral landmark on her cycling routes.

“Surprised it’s lasted the way it is as long as it has, I guess,” Barnes said. “It’s not the easiest to negotiate.”

The underpass, made of stone, carries 1,545 vehicles a day, according to 2014 traffic counts done by the Tippecanoe County Area Plan Commission. The clearance is marked at 11 feet, 2 inches at its rounded peak. (The minimum clearance standards on the interstates is 16 feet in rural areas and 14 feet in urban areas, according to federal standards.)

The Newman Road rail underpass has been targeted by West Lafayette and Purdue University. The rail ...more

The Newman Road rail underpass has been targeted by West Lafayette and Purdue University. The rail underpass is too narrow and too low to accommodate trucks trying to get to Purdue's aerospace district.

Dave Bangert/Journal & Courier

West Lafayette Mayor John Dennis said he used Newman Road most days when his family lived on Division Road, west of the city, in the early 1980s, at a time when Hooks had a drug store between the underpass and Indiana 26. (That building has been used by Purdue for storage for decades.)

“Newman Road was great, until you got to that part, and then it was like Russian roulette,” Dennis said. “Depending on your speed and the traffic, you can’t see through it until you’re right on it, the way it curves right there. …

“It’s like a lot of things. Is it a piece of our history? Yes. But is it practical and safe and reasonable for today’s times? It’s not. Its time has come.”

Jeff Bezos’ decision to take Blue Origin to Alabama instead of West Lafayette made that clear.

“We’ll be ready to get the next one,” Dennis said, “once we get this going.”